The Authorpreneur Podcast - Writing & Self Publishing Tips

Send us Fan Mail In previous podcast episodes, I've mentioned that I want this podcast to be free of interviews unless they are about how an author writes, outlines or writes without an outline. Today, I'm making an exception with this bonus interview because I believe the discussion will benefit you even if you're in the planning stages of writing your first novel. As you can guess...

Send us Fan Mail So, you've created an outline for your novel. And now, you're ready to start writing. Diving into writing the first draft seems like the first logical step. However, I recommend you slow down and edit the outline for your novel. I learned this lesson the hard way after publishing my first-in-series novella. To this day, I regret not going back and editing the outline for...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the third instalment of my mini-series on how I outline a novel. For those of you who are unaware, in the first episode, I discuss how I go from fleshing out a story idea to a basic outline. In episode TAP035, which is the second instalment in this three-part mini-series on outlining, I focused on sharing the steps in my outlining process that helped me create a structu...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the second instalment of my three-part mini-series on how I outline a novel. For those of you who are unaware, I discuss how I go from fleshing out a story idea to a basic outline in the first episode. In this show, I share the steps in my outlining process that help me create a structurally sound story with scenes that actively move the story forward. If you haven&apos...

Send us Fan Mail Since 2014, I've written two novellas, one short story, and two full-length novels, three of which I have self-published. One novel is being rewritten because I wanted to change a story device and plot thread. For me, this second storyline was unrealistic and painted the character in an unprofessional light, thus creating a sense of trust with the reader. I needed the charact...

Send us Fan Mail Before I dive into discussing how to outline a novel or the planning phase of writing, I thought it would be best to ask an obvious but nonetheless important question. Is outlining a good idea? Depending upon who you listen to, you will hear conflicting advice. Some authors will say in order to write quicker, you need to ditch the outlining phase. While others abide by the age-old...

Send us Fan Mail Throughout the preorder and launch period of the release of The Candidate, I experienced a series of frustrating issues with Apple Books. While I was struggling with Apple Books, I decided to redesign the ebook's cover; then, I went on to design the paperback based on this new theme. And this new design had surprising results on the ARC giveaway for The Candidate. Also, I sta...

Send us Fan Mail As November flips open on my calendar, so does the launch date for my novella. In amongst the busyness of preparing for my book release, I ran into an alarming issue with Etsy that led me to question whether I will continue recommending them to creative businesses. But back to preparing for my book release, I decided to take the plunge and use BookSirens to find advanced readers a...

Send us Fan Mail The writing has come to an end. And the line editing and proofreading phases are underway. In the final hours of editing, I made a story decision that I suspected would cost me more money. While I waited for the next phase of the editing process to begin, I dived into the process of preparing to self-publish my novella. This led me to finally make a decision about preorders after...

Send us Fan Mail Up until now, I've wanted the seasons of this podcast to be evergreen and act as a resource on how to write a particular element of a story. My desire to create short, evergreen episodes focused on a single topic is the reason this podcast tends to be free of interviews. However, throughout season three, I will share short interviews with other writers discussing how they wri...

Send us Fan Mail Revision is like pulling teeth. Well, that's how it feels to me at the moment. I'm so over revising this story. But at the same time, I feel so insecure about this novella. Long gone is that innocent, naive Amelia, who was excited to publish her first piece of fiction. Perhaps I know better now. Or, more realistically, I'm more cynical. I know what awaits me if I sc...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the final instalment of this two-part mini-series on how to write a novel with genre expectations in mind. There's nothing worse than reaching the halfway mark as you write your first draft or even as you're starting the revision stage to realise that you're not sure if there's a market for your book. If this is where you are at, then don't pani...

Send us Fan Mail Writing to market or writing with genre expectations in mind is often seen as a dirty word. And I think there are a few misconceptions, largely to do with confusing the strategy with writing to a trend which is very different. For the sake of clarity, writing to trend is all about writing what's popular. An example of that strategy is writing a paranormal romance feature vamp...

Send us Fan Mail At the start of season two, I started off with the best of intentions. Just like this episode, I set the expectations for the season. And that's when everything went pear-shaped. In fact, things aren't back to normal for me either. I don't need to remind you because, technically, we're still at this place. Now that I’ve said this, I’m going to immediately follo...

Send us Fan Mail In the last two weeks of August, I started revising a murder mystery novella. Also, during this period, I created a book marketing plan for the Candidate. As I was revising my murder mystery novella, I began to feel scared to self-publish. To be honest, I've been feeling this way for a while. This month, I purchased a few courses, and I share what prompted me to make these pu...

Send us Fan Mail During the first two weeks of August, I focused my time on preparing a murder mystery novel for beta readers; then, as I waited for feedback, I focused on the second book in my other series. And this is what juggling multiple projects at once is like. You spend much of your time jumping between projects, and it does get overwhelming at times. In light of that, I share a tip on dea...

Send us Fan Mail If you listened to the previous episodes of this podcast, you'd know that I've been struggling to finish my next novel. By now, you're probably wondering what drama got in the way of me achieving my writing and publishing goals. In this show, I'll share a momentous writing update. On top of this, I discuss my fears and a surprising update on my Fussy Librarian...

Send us Fan Mail During May and June, I experimented with more low-budget book promotions on a 99-cent sale on my first-in-series novella, Missing. Naturally, things didn't go as expected. In this episode, I dive into why I believe my low-budget book promotions went horribly wrong. But before I delve into all of that, I discuss what I achieved in terms of writing and share a milestone that I&...

Send us Fan Mail For some reason, I put off sharing this author diary update because I believed I didn't do that much writing, and I was a little embarrassed. Well, I was partly correct. As I look back over my completed tasks on ToDoist and the notes on my daily writing habit spreadsheet, I realise that my assumption was incorrect. And I did get some writing done during the first four months...

Send us Fan Mail The results of my very first story origin newsletter swap are in, and it's not what I expected. As I cast my mind back, I decided whether I would do another newsletter swap in the future. And I share my biggest lessons learned. In November, I managed to secure another free mystery and thriller eBook promotion on Kobo. Due to this change in price on Kobo, I decided to change t...

Send us Fan Mail After much deliberation, I come to terms with my struggles with the notion of whether I should continue to write more books in the James Lalonde series. This leads me to announce that I'm letting myself write another series in a different sub-genre alongside writing the James Lalonde series. I guess the short version of that is I'm writing to market. Yay!  In other news,...

Send us Fan Mail After months of frustration with the slow speed of my website, I took the plunge and moved web hosts. And in this episode, I discuss the drama of moving from one WebHost to another. Spoiler alert: I’m happy with my move, and I’m wondering why I didn’t do it earlier. But, the move took some time. In September, I found myself lured in by another mystery and thriller Free Promotion o...

Send us Fan Mail The problem with helpful book marketing suggestions like"get interviewed on podcasts" is no one actually tells you how to create a pitch that will land you an interview. In this bonus episode, I will share three tips and a six-step formula that will help you craft a better pitch and, hopefully, get you a podcast interview. Obviously, I can't make any outlandish clai...

Send us Fan Mail I’m super excited to announce that I’ve finally developed a writing habit after months of struggling. And in this episode, I share the tips that I believe helped me to achieve this goal. During August, I started chasing reviews for Missing on the Amazon US store. In terms of writing, I started working with an alpha reader, and I discuss what I’m doing differently this time around....

Send us Fan Mail July was full of surprises. A well-known free ebook platform shared my novella with its audience. And I’m going to share the results of this with you. While we're on the topic of book marketing, I will also discuss the outcome of my free promotion on Kobo. After careful deliberation, I took steps to self-publish my reader magnet on all stores, and I talk about the reasoning b...